Latin American and Caribbean airline leaders meeting at the annual ALTA forum in Panama City Oct. 29 emphasized a coordinated and vigorous approach to digital modernization, decreased regulation and infrastructure improvements as vital to meeting the demands of a forecast doubling of air traffic in the region in 10 years.
“My number one headache, by far, is the state of airports in Latin America,” Avianca CEO Hernan Rincon said. “Every single airport is at maximum capacity.”
While infrastructure developments at several regional airports were lauded—including construction of a new terminal extension at Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, highly visible to attendees flying in for the ALTA conference—the results of the Mexican national consultation on the future of the new Mexico International Airport (NAIM) caused considerable disappointment at the outset of the ALTA meeting. After a four-day vote in which just over 1 million people (just over 1% of the Mexican voter population) participated, further construction on NAIM was rejected by about 70% of voters.
“I believe we are headed for an infrastructure crisis, and that includes Latin America,” IATA CEO and DG Alexandre de Juniac said in a speech at the conference. “This capacity challenge at the key hub locations such as Buenos Aires, Bogota, Lima, Mexico City, Havana and Santiago are very well documented. Unless they are addressed properly, the region’s economies will suffer. If planes cannot land, the economic benefits that they bring will fly elsewhere”…
